Don’t Use These 25 Passwords—Everyone Else Does

Hands type on a computer keyboard. (Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo)

If you want to make it especially easy for hackers to get into your accounts here’s what to do: Use one of these 25 passwords.

Every year SplashData publishes a list of the 25 most common passwords found on the internet. The list is compiled from the millions of stolen passwords that end up being posted online during the year.

The“Worst Passwords of 2013,” the newest list, was heavily influenced by the huge Adobe security breach that affected some 150 million customers.

SplashData strongly suggests that if you’re using one of these passwords, to change it immediately.

They also provide some good tips to keep your accounts safe.

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You'll often hear that you should make complex passwords, at least eight characters long with a mix of character types. But people find those hard to remember. So here are some best practices.

Don’t use passwords with common substitutions like “dr4mat1c” — those are increasingly vulnerable as hacker technology gets more sophisticated.

To make easy to remember passwords, you can use passphrases separated by dashes or other characters. Using random words, though, is better than common phrases. For example, “cakes years birthday” or “smiles_light_skip?”

Don’t use the same username/password combos for multiple websites. Best is a unique combination for every site, but in any case, avoid using the same password for entertainment sites as you use for your email, social media, or banking.

 

Rank	Password	Change from 2012
1	123456	Up 1
2	password	Down 1
3	12345678	Unchanged
4	qwerty	Up 1
5	abc123	Down 1
6	123456789	New
7	111111	Up 2
8	1234567	Up 5
9	iloveyou	Up 2
10	adobe123	New
11	123123	Up 5
12	sunshine	Up 2
13	1234567890	New
14	letmein	Down 7
15	photoshop	New
16	1234	New
17	monkey	Down 11
18	shadow	Unchanged
19	sunshine	Down 5
20	12345	New
21	password1	Up 4
22	princess	New
23	azerty	New
24	trustno1	Down 12
25	000000	New